It seems incredibly silly to go through the hassle unless you got married and took your wife's last name. My last name came from my parents, I guess I respect that and them a bit too much to toss their last name aside to jump on board my ancestors because I thought it was cool.

It seems incredibly silly to go through the hassle unless you got married and took your wife's last name. My last name came from my parents, I guess I respect that and them a bit too much to toss their last name aside to jump on board my ancestors because I thought it was cool.

yeah I don't really see how it is respectful or disrespectful to do that. Seems kind of old fashioned

yeah I don't really see how it is respectful or disrespectful to do that. Seems kind of old fashioned

Especially given that if your ancestor's family name is different from your parents' name someone must have been disrespectful along the line...

FWIW my own situation is much like 4JNAs. My wife kept her last name and we added her last name to the kids' names as a middle name (they each have two middle names).

Maybe that's an approach you could consider. Adopt your ancestral/first generation family name as a middle name? Would be less confusing for some uses as for those you'd still be Eric Slash instead your new legal name of Eric F. Slash.

Especially given that if your ancestor's family name is different from your parents' name someone must have been disrespectful along the line...
...

Sometimes (often) it was changed by the immigration official. They may ask (in English) "What is your name?" and the immigrant would answer "I am from Minsk!". The official would scratch their heads, and write down what they thought they heard in the box for "Name:"

Sometimes the immigrant would answer correctly, but the official either couldn't spell it - or decided nobody needed a name 13 letters long - or would just decide that "Brown" was a good name today.

Nothing to do with respect... just officialdom fighting boredom.

__________________My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. - Jack Layton

When my wife took my last name, it took her a year to finally get everything changed. I'm not sure why it took so long, but for about half the year, she had to carry her driver's license with her new name and her passport with her old name to properly identify herself. But it sounds like you have a good reason for changing your name, so even if it takes a while, hopefully you'll never have to do it again.